Creatd, Inc. 10-K

Item 1. Business. Jerrick Media Holdings, Inc. (“we,” “us,” the “Company,” or “Jerrick Media”) (formerly Great Plains Holdings, Inc. or “GTPH”) was incorporated under the laws of the state of Nevada on December 30, 1999 under the name LILM, Inc. The Company changed its name on December 3, 2013 to Great Plains Holdings, Inc. as part of its plan to diversify its business through the acquisition and operation of commercial real estate, including, but not limited to, self-storage facilities, apartment buildings, 55+ senior manufactured home communities, and other income producing properties. Historically, the Company has principally engaged in the manufacture and marketing of the LiL Marc, a plastic boys’ toilet-training device, which we discontinued as of December 31, 2014. On February 5, 2016 (the “Closing Date”), GTPH, GPH Merger Sub, Inc., a Nevada corporation and wholly-owned subsidiary of GTPH (“Merger Sub”), and Jerrick Ventures, Inc., a privately-held Nevada corporation headquartered in New Jersey (“Jerrick”), entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Agreement”) pursuant to which the Merger Sub was merged with and into Jerrick, with Jerrick surviving as a wholly-owned subsidiary of GTPH (the “Merger”). GTPH acquired, through a reverse triangular merger, all of the outstanding capital stock of Jerrick in exchange for issuing Jerrick’s shareholders (the “Jerrick Shareholders”), pro-rata, a total of 28,500,000 shares of GTPH’s common stock. GTPH assumed 33,415 shares of Jerrick’s Series A Convertible Preferred Stock (the “Jerrick Series A Preferred”) and 8,064 shares of Series B Convertible Preferred Stock (the “Jerrick Series B Preferred”). In connection with the Merger, on the Closing Date, GTPH and Kent Campbell entered into a Spin-Off Agreement (the “Spin-Off Agreement”), pursuant to which Mr. Campbell purchased from GTPH (i) all of GTPH’s interest in Ashland Holdings, LLC, a Florida limited liability company, and (ii) all of GTPH’s interest in Lil Marc, Inc., a Utah corporation, in exchange for the cancellation of 781,818 shares of GTPH’s Common Stock held by Mr. Campbell. In addition, Mr. Campbell assumed all debts, obligations and liabilities of GTPH, including any existing prior to the Merger, pursuant to the terms and conditions of the Spin-Off Agreement. Effective February 28, 2016, GTPH entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Statutory Merger Agreement”) with Jerrick, pursuant to which GTPH became the parent company of Jerrick Ventures, LLC, a wholly-owned operating subsidiary of Jerrick (the “Statutory Merger”). Upon closing of the Merger on February 5, 2016, the Company changed its business plan to that of Jerrick Media. On February 28, 2016, GTPH changed its name to Jerrick Media Holdings, Inc. to better reflect its new business strategy. 1 General Jerrick is a technology company focused on the development of digital communities, marketing of branded digital content, and e-commerce opportunities relative to particular communities. Jerrick’s flagship product is Vocal, a proprietary digital publishing platform, that enables creators of long form content and rich media to reach an engaged audience through a growing portfolio of genre-specific branded websites. Through Vocal and other associated social media channels and outlets, we produce and distribute a variety of digital media content. The content for each branded community in our portfolio and for distribution through other media channels, is derived from internal generation, user contributions, and external collaborations. The content includes, but is not limited to: videos, imagery, articles, e-books, film, and television projects. Revenue is generated in a variety of ways, including: (i) the sale of native advertising and marketing services related to our content, including but not limited to branded content campaigns and affiliate marketing; (ii) marketing and branding consulting; (iii) affiliate sales; (iv) platform processing fees; (v) the sale of genre-specific products related to our brands and, licensing of our content for download-to-own services; and (vi) royalties and production fees for original content, created for either film, television, or digital end-markets. Demand and pricing for our advertising depends on our user base and overall market conditions. We also drive additional demand through integrated sales of digital advertising inventory, through our marketing services, and by providing unique branded entertainment and custom sponsorship opportunities to our advertisers. Our advertising and e-commerce revenues may be affected by the strength of advertising markets and general economic conditions and may fluctuate depending on the success of our content, as measured by the number of people visiting our websites at any given time. Our Strategy We developed the Vocal platform, designed to develop and cost-effectively engage content creators, to enable them to reach their audience and monetize their content. In addition to providing relevant content, our technology is centered on efficiency and scalability, through a growing variety of topics, and output through a growing number of distribution methods. We believe our content-to-commerce model is an integral part of digital monetization. We focus on distribution of content through the Vocal platform that optimizes user-generated content through an algorithmically derived moderation process. Through the moderation process, we reduce manpower costs, and simultaneously increase our ability to publish content and rapidly produce genre-specific websites driven by usage data. Through these genre-specific websites, we are able to provide advertisers with a more transparent and targeted community for their brands, which we believe offers a very high value proposition. The Vocal platform and its proprietary technology can be white-labeled or licensed, to provide seamless integration to independent media companies and brands. We also use the Vocal platform for distribution and monetization of a substantial inventory of content featuring unpublished photographs, negatives, trademarks, videos, scripts, short stories, and articles across various genres. We believe we have a competitive advantage in the ownership of merchandising rights of such content which allows us to sell or license these properties. As part of our strategy, we develop transmedia assets internally, in collaboration with other production and media companies, as well as with our expanding user base. The transmedia assets we produce, such as film, television, digital shorts, books, and comic series can be leveraged beyond digital media and can be distributed across multiple platforms and formats. 2 Our Website Communities We developed genre-specific websites, designed to create self-sustaining communities, with each revolving around a specific topic or theme. The creation of these websites is driven by two factors: (i) the potential for monetization opportunities, and (ii) by the topical content provided by our users. Intellectual Property We regard our technology and other proprietary rights as essential to our business. We rely on trade secrets, confidentiality procedures, contract provisions, and trademark law to protect our technology and intellectual property. We also license technology from third parties. We have also entered into confidentiality agreements with our consultants and corporate partners and intend to control access to and distribution of our products, documentation, and other proprietary information. Protecting our Content from Copyright Theft The theft of pictures, video and other entertainment content presents a significant challenge to our industry, and we take many steps to address this concern. Where possible, we make use of technological protection tools, such as encryption, to protect our content. Notwithstanding these efforts and the many legal protections that exist to combat piracy, the proliferation of content theft and technological tools with which to carry it out continue to escalate. The failure to obtain enhanced legal protections and enforcement tools could make it more difficult for us to adequately protect our intellectual property, which could negatively impact its value. Competition We face competition in a number of aspects of our business, and particularly from other companies that seek to connect people with information on the web similar to ours, and provide them with relevant advertising. We believe we have a competitive advantage due to the underlying designs and processes of our platform Vocal. Competitive factors include community cohesion, interaction and size, website or mobile platform and application ease-of-use and accessibility, user engagement, system reliability, reliability of delivery and payment, and quality of content. Some current and potential competitors have longer operating histories, larger user bases and greater brand recognition in their respective internet sectors than we do. Other online sites with similar business models may be acquired by, receive investments from, or enter into other commercial relationships with well-established and well-financed companies. As a result, some of our competitors with other revenue sources may be able to devote more resources to marketing and promotional campaigns, adopt more aggressive pricing policies and devote more resources to website, mobile platforms and applications and systems development than we can. We also compete with destination websites that seek to increase their search-related traffic. These destination websites may include those operated by internet access providers, such as cable and DSL service providers. Because our users need to access our services through internet access providers, they have direct relationships with these providers. If an access provider or a computer or computing device manufacturer offers online services that compete with ours, the user may find it more convenient to use the services of the access provider or manufacturer. In addition, the access provider or manufacturer may make it hard to access our services by not listing them in the access provider’s or manufacturer’s own menu of offerings. Also, because the access provider gathers information from the user in connection with the establishment of a billing relationship, the access provider may be more effective than we are in tailoring services and advertisements to the specific tastes of the user. 3 There has been a trend toward industry consolidation among our competitor, and so smaller competitors today may become larger competitors in the future. If our competitors are more successful than we are at generating traffic, our revenues may decline. Employees As of April 1, 2019, we had 24 full-time employees, and 1 full-time contractors. None of our employees are subject to a collective bargaining agreement, and we believe that our relationship with our employees is good. Description of Property As of June 4, 2018, our corporate headquarters which houses operations and support personnel, is located at 2050 Center Ave, Suite 640, Fort Lee NJ 07024, an office consisting of a total of 2,300 square feet. The current lease term is effective June 5, 2018 through July 5, 2023, with monthly rent of $5,612 for the first year and increases at a rate of 3% for each subsequent year thereafter. Where You Can Find More Information Our corporate website address is located at https://jerrick.media/ . We do not intend our website address to be an active link or to otherwise incorporate by reference the contents of the website into this Report. The public may read and copy any materials the Company files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0030. The SEC maintains an Internet website (http://www.sec.gov) that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC.